Sunday, August 28, 2016

Ohana Luau & Festival

One of the best weekends of all time for me musically. I knew about Ohana Fest and that 2 of my favorites Eddie Vedder and Lana Del Rey were playing back to back nights. What I didn't know was that the Friday night before the festival, there was a Luau brought to you by....Eddie Vedder and Kelly Slater....hosted by Jeff Ross with many other cool guests. It was at the Ritz Carlton in Laguna and was almost $1000 a ticket. Eddie was going to sing some songs in a very intimate setting - the whole idea of event to raise for San Onofre beach which is very special to Eddie as it was the first place he ever surfed. (a story i got to hear up close 2 nights in a row :)) Anyway - back to $1000 right? Clearly I wasn't going. Until I saw a best friend of mine post the Luau on facebook and I reached out - out of curiosity - to find out why/how she was going - to find out that her best friends husband was producing both the Luau and festival - to find out she needed a little help with the raffel at the charity... to find out I suddenly had 2 tickets and was able to sit on the floor (because that was closer than a fancy dining table chair)...10 feet in front of Eddie singing on a small stage in a ballroom. I had to contain myself and my perma-grin. As if the night couldn't get any better, our friend casually said - "oh, I have extra VIP passes to the actual festival tomorrow too if you guys want to go?" Um, OK! Eddie 2 nights in a row - and backstage with Eddie. Plus, Band of Horses and Elvis Costello were also opening for him! I appreciate Costello and am a total band of horses fan...who we actually got to watch ON stage (side stage). So cool feeling the vibrations through your whole body as they jammed out to hits like No Ones Gonna Love you More than I do ..and...ending on The Funeral - a song that takes me back so clearly to 2007 I can see it all. Then - as the sun set over the ocean and the palm trees turned purple, it was time for Mr. Vedder. I wish I could have actually met him - security even backstage was so tight. I wanted to watch him from the very front- so we snuck up and cut through the crowd the best we could. My friend - who wasn't a pearl jam fan - was certainly a huge fan of Eddie a couple minutes after he started playing. They way he talks to the crowd too - what a bad ass. I love him. Kelly Slater came out and sang Indifference with Vedder - and beforehand said how nervous he was to sing despite being able to surf in from of 10,000 - this was a little intimidating following Eddie's opening vocals. He killed it though. Vedder also played a new song - never performed on stage before - that will be on Twin Peaks in the new year. It's call Out of Sand - had a tear fall down when he played it. Other favorites that night...Elderly Woman Behind a Counter (in a small town), Hide your Love Away, Porch, Betterman, Guaranteed and Hard Sun. At the end of the show, Eddie did Neil Young's Rockin in the Free World - joined by Band of Horses. I was high for about 3 days after...it felt weird to not have Eddie in my peripheral vision anymore!
Pearl Jam was and still is my favorite band - thanks to my big brother who had me listening to Ten on repeat when it released Aug 27th, 1991. Since Jonathan was the coolest...Pearl Jam and Eddie Vedder obviously were too. Product of the 90s - will always love grunge. Wish I could have told EV the story about my brother dressing like him in that brown cord jacket and doc martins and socks with the red trim... and, about 'Alive' being played at his funeral in 94' ...and the letter I wrote 'Ed' but never had an address to send. But it's ok - being a rock star - all your fans have a story. Just happy I got to be in the presence and enjoy the music - for me, and for my bro.